General Settings

hostname

Most of the servers need to know the fully-qualified hostname. The default is computed at runtime and is normally acceptable.

Note that if the name is "localhost", there may be problems with TLS. An IMAP/POP/SMTP client may refuse a server certificate for "localhost" if it already has seen a different certificate for "localhost". We strongly suggest using a different hostname.

use-ipv4

decides whether the various servers accept IPv4 connections. true by default.

use-ipv6

decides whether the various servers accept IPv6 connections. true by default.

undelete-time

is the number of days a message can be undeleted after being deleted, 49 by default.

server-processes

is the number of processes started to serve IMAP/POP clients. This is 2 by default.

The server-processes setting should be about as large as the number of CPU cores available, perhaps a little larger. We advise asking info@aox.org in unusual cases.

Database Access

db

The type of database. The default, postgres, is currently the only supported value.

db-address

The address of the database server. The default is 127.0.0.1.

db-port

The port number of the database server. The default is 5432.

db-name

The name of the database to use. The default is archiveopteryx.

db-schema

The name of the schema in the database where the database objects are installed. The default is public. It is safe to ignore this setting.

db-user

The name of the unprivileged Postgres user that the servers ordinarily use. The default is aox.

db-password

The database password used for the db-user. The default is an empty string.

Unless a password is specified, Archiveopteryx sets up a randomly-chosen password and writes it to the configuration file during installation.

db-max-handles

The maximum number of database handles that Archiveopteryx may open. The default is 4.

The server creates one handle at startup, and may create others if the load justifies it (and as controlled by db-handle-interval). Note, however, that when running with security=on, new database handles can be created only if you connect to the server using TCP/IP, not via Unix sockets. In the latter case, the server must use the first handle throughout its lifetime, since the socket is no longer accessible after chroot.

db-handle-interval

The minimum interval (in seconds) between the creation of new database handles. The default is 120.

Logging

log-address

The address of the log server. The default is 127.0.0.1.

log-port

The port number at which logd(8) listens, and to which the other servers connect. The default is 2054.

logfile

tells logd(8) where to write log events. It may be set to an absolute file name (starting with '/'), or to "syslog/category" (e.g. "syslog/local2"), which logs via syslog(2), or to -, which causes everything to be logged to stdout. The default is to log to syslog/mail.

logfile-mode

is 400 by default and controls the permissions used by logd(8) if it creates logfile. The format (three octal digits) is the same as that used by chmod(1).

log-level

may be set to debug, info, significant, or error, in increasing order of severity (it is significant by default). If a message is logged with this severity or above, the log server writes it to the logfile immediately. Messages with lower severity are discarded.

Security

security

is enabled by default, and should be enabled whenever Archiveopteryx is used in production. It causes the servers to lock themselves into a chroot jail and run with very limited unix and database privileges. Most notably, they cannot open files or delete messages.

Turning security off has exactly one advantage: it simplifies debugging.

allow-plaintext-access

controls whether it is possible to read mail via an unencrypted connection. The default value is always. If this is changed to localhost, plaintext connections are permitted only from the host itself. If it is changed to never, TLS is necessary to read mail.

jail-directory

is /var/db/aox/jail by default. On startup, each secure server uses chroot(2) to jail themselves into this directory, to which the jail-user should have minimal rights (only o+x permissions).

jail-user

is the user name under which the servers run, and is aox by default. On startup, the servers change UID to this user. This user should not have read or write access to the jail directory.

jail-group

is the group name under which the servers run, and is aox by default. On startup, the servers change GID to this user.

entropy-source

is the fully-qualified name of a file that acts as a source for random bytes, whenever they are needed (e.g. SASL challenges). Set to /dev/urandom by default. If this is instead set to /dev/random, Archiveopteryx never uses anything less than perfectly random numbers. In this case, make sure that there's enough entropy, or else a series of rapid login attempts can block the entire server.

User Authentication

http://archiveopteryx.org/sasl describes SASL and authentication in more detail.

allow-plaintext-passwords

controls whether the servers permit plaintext passwords, and how such passwords are handled. May be set to always (which is the default) or never. (Future versions of Archiveopteryx will offer more settings.)

auth-digest-md5

controls whether the servers offer the digest-md5 SASL mechanism. Disabled by default due to interoperability problems.

auth-cram-md5

controls whether the servers offer the cram-md5 SASL mechanism. Enabled by default.

auth-plain

controls whether the servers offer the plain-text SASL mechanism. Enabled by default.

Note that disabling auth-plain doesn't disable all plaintext passwords, since SASL isn't always used. To disable plaintext passwords, use the allow-plaintext-passwords variable above.

auth-anonymous

controls whether the servers offer anonymous login, disabled by default.

Mail delivery

use-lmtp

controls whether archiveopteryx(8) should accept mail via LMTP (RFC 2033). The default is enabled.

lmtp-address

specifies the address where archiveopteryx(8) should listen for LMTP connections, and to which deliver(8) should connect. The default is 127.0.0.1.

lmtp-port

specifies which port archiveopteryx(8) should listen to, and which port deliver(8) should connect to. The default is 2026.

use-smtp

controls whether archiveopteryx(8) should accept mail via SMTP/ESMTP (RFC 2821/1869). SMTP is disabled by default.

smtp-address

specifies the address where archiveopteryx(8) should listen for SMTP connections The default is an empty string, which means all available IPv4 and IPv6 interfaces.

smtp-port

specifies which port archiveopteryx(8) should listen to. The default is 25.

use-subaddressing

controls whether messages addressed to user+tag@example.org are accepted for delivery to user@example.org (if the latter is a valid recipient address). The default is false.

address-separator

is the character that separates the username from the subaddress in a localpart, e.g. the + in user+tag@example.org. The default, which you should not need to change, is +. This setting is relevant only if use-subaddressing is true.

soft-bounce

specifies whether a delivery problem causes a message to be rejected permanently (soft-bounce disabled) or queued at the MTA (soft-bounce enabled). This is enabled by default. We recommend disabling it when you are confident that mail delivery works.

message-copy

specifies whether or not to keep filesystem copies of incoming messages, e.g. to burn a mail log to CD/DVD regularly. The default value of none means that no copies are ever made.

Setting it to delivered keeps copies of all delivered messages, a value of errors keeps only those messages that could not be delivered because of errors, and all keeps copies of all messages.

message-copy-directory

specifies a directory to which mail delivered via LMTP/SMTP is copied, if message-copy is set. Its default value is /var/db/aox/messages. If you set use-security, message-copy-directory must be a subdirectory of jail-directory.

If message-copy-directory does not exist or is not writable, Archiveopteryx logs an error at startup and exits.

Each file in message-copy-directory contains one or more header lines, namely Error, From and To, then an empty line, then the verbatim received mail message. If there is an Error line, the message was not delivered, and the rest of the line describes the problem.

The file's name is a unique string of numbers and hyphens. It ends with "-err" if there was an error injecting the message into the database.

SMTP Submission

use-smtp-submit

controls whether archiveopteryx(8) should accept mail via SMTP-Submit (RFC 4409). The default is enabled.

check-sender-addresses

controls whether archiveopteryx(8) should check whether the sender is authorised to use the addresses in the message. From, Sender, Return-Path (SMTP Mail From) and Reply-To are all checked. The default is disabled.

submit-copy-to-sender

controls whether archiveopteryx(8) should ensure that the sender receives a copy of outgoing mail. The default is disabled. This can be used to ensure that all outgoing mail is archived.

If the sender already receives a copy of the message, submit-copy-to-sender has no effect. Senders will not receive two copies. The copy is always sent to the user who sends the message, even if the From and/or Return-Path is different. The sender's copy will be delivered through the configured smarthost, as with any other outgoing message.

smtp-submit-address

specifies the address where archiveopteryx(8) should listen for Submit connections. The default, an empty string, means to listen on all available IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. 127.0.0.1.

smtp-submit-port

specifies which port archiveopteryx(8) should listen to. The default is 587.

smarthost-address

specifies the address of the SMTP server which is used to relay mail to remote recipients. The default is 127.0.0.1.

smarthost-port

specifies the port to use when forwarding mail to a smarthost. The default is 25. (These defaults thus conflict with the default values of smtp-address and smtp-port when use-smtp is enabled.)

use-smtps

controls whether archiveopteryx(8) should accept SSL-wrapped SMTP connections. The default is false (and the use of STARTTLS with SMTP Submit is strongly recommended instead).

smtps-address

is the address where archiveopteryx(8) listens for new SSL-wrapped SMTP connections. As for smtp-address, the default is an empty string, which means all available IPv4 and IPv6 addresses.

smtps-port

is the port where archiveopteryx(8) accepts SSL-wrapped SMTP connections, 465 by default.

IMAP

use-imap

must be enabled for archiveopteryx(8) to accept IMAP connections. The default is true.

imap-address

is the address where archiveopteryx(8) listens for new connections. The default, an empty string, means to listen on all available IPv4 and IPv6 addresses.

imap-port

is the port where archiveopteryx(8) accepts connections, 143 by default.

use-imaps

controls whether archiveopteryx(8) should also accept SSL-wrapped IMAP connections. The default is false (and the use of STARTTLS over the standard IMAP port is strongly recommended instead).

imaps-address

is the address where archiveopteryx(8) listens for new SSL-wrapped connections. As with imap-address, the default is an empty string, which means all available IPv4 and IPv6 addresses.

imaps-port

is the port where archiveopteryx(8) accepts SSL-wrapped connections, 993 by default.

use-imap-quota

must be enabled for archiveopteryx(8) to support the IMAP QUOTA extension. This quota is not enforced and is recommended to be disabled on large mailboxes. The default is true.

POP

use-pop

must be enabled for archiveopteryx(8) to accept POP3 connections. The default is false.

pop-address

is the address where archiveopteryx(8) listens for new connections. The default, an empty string, means to listen on all available IPv4 and IPv6 addresses.

pop-port

is the port where archiveopteryx(8) accepts connections, 110 by default.

use-pops

controls whether archiveopteryx(8) should also accept SSL-wrapped POP connections. The default is false (and the use of STARTTLS over the standard POP port is strongly recommended instead).

pops-address

is the address where archiveopteryx(8) listens for new SSL-wrapped connections. As with pop-address, the default is an empty string, which means all available IPv4 and IPv6 addresses.

pops-port

is the port where archiveopteryx(8) accepts SSL-wrapped connections, 995 by default.

SIEVE

use-sieve

controls whether or not the managesieve server is started. The default is enabled.

managesieve-address

specifies the address where archiveopteryx(8) should listen for connections. The default is an empty string, which means to listen on all available IPv4 and IPv6 addresses.

managesieve-port

specifies which port archiveopteryx(8) should listen to. The default is 2000.

TLS

use-tls

regulates whether Archiveopteryx supports TLS at all. The default is enabled.

tls-certificate

is the absolute file name of the TLS private key and signed certificate, e.g. /usr/local/etc/archiveopteryx/imap.p15. If tls-certificate is not specified, tlsproxy generates a private key and a self-signed certificate at runtime and stores both in /usr/local/etc/archiveopteryx/automatic-key.pem.

tls-certificate-label

is not used in 3.1.4.